My Philosophy of Education

My philosophies on education are those that are similar to the theories of Raggio Emilia. The goal of Raggio Emilia is to have the teachers learn alongside their students, which allows them to develop stronger thinking skills while combining the four basic principles of Emergent curriculum, projects, collaboration, and representational development.

I believe that children develop at his or her own pace. A quality environment must be safe and nurturing, which will broaden the children's physical, emotional, social and cognitive developments. I also believe that things are age appropriate for children may not be developmentally appropriate; therefore working independently with children is for the best.

In my curriculum I would like to incorporate the children's ideas on their learning developments, I would entice the children by allowing them to explore their senses while working on their listening, and visual skills along with being able to touch and move their items from place to place.

I would also enjoy having the parents in my classroom work with as partners in curriculum development. It's aforesaid ""that parents are the children's first teachers,"" and obtaining the knowledge from parents, is the antidote to finding the best mix of school and home, which will make the transition to learning clear and more plausible rather than hard and uninteresting.

So, in conclusion, I practice the Raggio Emilia approach as well as the constructivist theory in my classroom and I plan on including both my students and their parents in project developments.

Special Education

Special Education is defined as ""Social and educational services, provided by specialized institutions including public schools, for people with disabilities between the ages of three to 21."" (Encyclopedia of Children's Health. 2018)

Read more: https://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Special-Education.html#ixzz5Uowrs3w0

The purpose of special education is to provide free and appropriate schooling for all children, including those with a disability in the least restrictive environment, thanks to the IDEA act passed in 1997. Children, who qualify for FAPE, can be educated in traditional mainstream classrooms, with other children without learning impairments as long as there are qualified staff members to lead them.

Special education is a variety of specified programs for children. The applications can range from different types of therapies, modified learning classrooms, assisting r, adaptive learning devices including pecs boards, tests, assessments, and altered behavioral techniques. Parents are their children's advocates. They are entitled to individual rights regarding their child with disabilities and can challenge or refuse treatments or service suggested by schools and its staff. If needed parents have the right to seek legal defense, due process, and second opinions from a professional of his or her choice. (Encyclopedia of Childs health. 2018)

Purpose of Schooling

The purpose of providing special education for children with different abilities in the least restrictive environment is so they can build skills unique to them”and help them understand and prepare for independent living, applying for and maintaining a job, and assist them in college or a trade school.

Children in specialized education need to have individual lesson plans based off their IEP's and medical diagnosis. They also need teachers with positive attitudes; some need modified behavioral intervention plans, assessments, monitoring, routines, and repetition, versus students in traditional classes.

According to the Buck Institute for Education; Project Based Learning or PBL is preparing ""students for personal, academic and career success. It readies young people to rise beyond his or her potential and challenge their lives in the foreseeable future."" (Buck Institute for Education. 2018).

Project-based learning is an example that allows students to obtain knowledge through a complex and meaningful approach. Students are engaged with the research and collaboration of social skills and learning how to communicate effectively with others. PBL considered being useful for students because it allows them to experience real-world choices, and gives them responsibility, opportunity, it's engaging, and focuses on building cognitively.

Nature of Learners

Knowing your students can be a difficult task for a teacher to master without building a connection with them and their families. Learning about a person requires a bit of research, family backgrounds, medical information, and current living situations. Student confidentiality must be followed along so if someone does not need to know personal tidbits about the child, and it must not leak. Understanding students helps the teacher effectively create a ""psychologically safe environment"", (William and Ochan-Kusuma Powell. 2011). In addition to this, an instructor can determine problematic areas of learning, strengths of the learner, and foster the emotional intelligence of the classroom.

Psychologically safe classroom environments described as ""Maslow's proposed in his hierarchy of basic human needs and wants, which must be acquired before a child can learn."" (William and Ochan-Kusuma Powell. 2011). Some wants and needs of people include a place to live, food, and security; but we must combine sensory. We all want affection, touch, and a high self-esteem, but in order for us as teachers to demonstrate anything, the student needs to trust and open up to learning, in a positive and nurturing way.

Curriculum

The Curriculum best fitting for my philosophy of education is the Reggio Emilia approach. This curriculum and program give children with disabilities priority, but they also view the children as ones with exclusive rights. Children with special needs: given a facilitator who not just works with the particular child but with the classroom as a whole. Like any other curriculum program, the individual rights child strictly observed, assessed, and documented to come up with their personal goals. They create a ""declaration of intent"" which is not formal, but gives the teacher the materials with methods that are modeled to help the student. Prime reason the declaration is not official is since children learn and master different tasks they are observed continuously, changing and the form needs to be flexible to incorporate this.

Instructional Methods

Each teacher within the field has their methods of instruction. Mine, however, is adaptable and flexible. I prefer to form small groups with two to three children (with similar skill sets) at a time to give my full attention to them without putting the strain on my instructional time with the other students. I also find creating simple to follow centers help students figure out where they want to work and in a self-contained way.

My centers' labeled with pictures showing where the item goes and in languages closely identified to the students home languages. Lastly, I will set routines with a visual picture board/plan, so each child understands ""what comes next,"" change my books and materials based for attention maintenance, and create ""theme activates"" such as plants, or animals to keep and build on the child's interests.

Classroom Management

Every teacher has something unique to offer in the classroom. His or her techniques vary regarding classroom management styles. The first thing to keep in mind is how to incorporate a child with special needs into a traditional classroom environment. Each program should be flexible regarding behavior and instruction.

Some children have limited attention spans and can sit for limited amounts of time, while some have longer attention spans and can sit for the entire activity. Facilitators should understand the project may not be feasible and be prepared to alter the lesson to fit the needs of most children. Another critical task is to have materials and activities prepared in advance to shorten the waiting period, which could lead to behavior struggles.

One example: I and my co-teacher (in my current profession) are two completely different personalities with different management styles. We each have a group of primary children we care for, but overall we manage the whole classroom. When creating lesson plans, she prepares activities that are mostly language and math based, as I am more creative, social-emotional, and STEAM-based. I have taken CSEFEL (California Collaborative of the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning) through the Department of Education. Each module/class taught us methods about classroom management and the social, emotional aspect of the child. ""Children's behavior challenges usually have underlying means such as need or feel they cannot express. Because of this, there is a need for intensive treatment for acquiring skills to understand what child is saying effectively through interventions."" (California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging 2018)

Through CSEFEL- some interventions help the child cope with ""big feelings"" These include The Tucker Turtle or Sally Snail approach. The point of both social, emotional stories is to show students that sometimes you get mad, angry, or sad, and there are better ways to cope with how you feel then hurting your friends or family members. Tucker Turtle used to destroy his friends, but he learned to use his words to show how frustrated he was. When he was mad, he stomps his feet instead, when the angry child would count to three slowly and blow out his anger, was scared he would climb inside his shell and hide. Through this approach, the friends were happy that Tucker Turtle stopped and reflected before reacting, and if he forgot a grownup was around to help.

Assessment Practices

Special education assessments determine if a student with specified needs and delays are eligible for services within special education. As part of a multi-disciplinary team, it is the job of every member to determine if there are disabilities within the child and if inclusion is necessary. There are various ways that the multidisciplinary team will check for suspected delays.

They involve: collecting and gathering information such as students school records (if any), background information that is pertinent, parent intake surveys, observing the child, and reports from teachers. Next, they analyze the data and submit for evaluation. The evaluation will look at the student's psychological, emotional, academic, cognitive, medical history, and language areas for weaknesses and ability. After that, they determine disability and make recommendations for placement or programs for the child. Parents have the legal right to challenge findings.

There are many types of assessments capable of tracking the progress of children. The best one for tracking children under one month to 5 ?? is called the ASQ-3 short for ages and stages questionnaires. These completed by parents and are considered the most accurate and easiest way to track the student's milestones, along with any delays that show up. The second tracking tool is called ASQ/SE which is used to detect a child's social, emotional development which may be troublesome or many need support in other intervention areas.

Professional Relationships with Family and Community

Educational programs must provide high-quality services, with emphasis on mental health, oral, nutritional services and ready to provide resources for families whom cannot adequately provide these are necessities for their children. In addition to this, the program must be culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate to the child's home languages.

Special education programs must offer structure and child development services recognizing parents as the children's first ""teachers"" they should also encourage family engagement, as well as following the program's implementation of policies and procedures.

Teachers and parents must have open communication about the child's milestones, regressions, behaviors, and routines. There should also be parent-teacher conferences at least two times a year unless an additional meeting is needed such as transitional or IEP's.

Parents also have the opportunities to learn about and provide feedback about selected instructional methods or what types of materials the program uses. Parents can volunteer in the classroom (with proper vaccinations) and have the right to the open door policy any time of day. Teachers have an obligation to parents to inform them about assessments and testing, but also share the child's progress and results. Since the children and families confidentiality is the most critical aspects of the program, conferences must hold with privacy at the parent's request; teachers also have the right to conduct home visits if a hazard is suspected.

Closing Remarks

To sum up, all classrooms are unique; my mission as an instructor is to help and model expectations with children while learning about their learning styles. My chosen curriculum is a mixture of Reggio Emilia inspired and Headstart high-scope, which spends on free choice and critical thinking. I lead the hands-on approach for the students to engage in their chosen way to problem solve and illuminate the child's learning styles.

References

TheEncyclopedia of Children's Health. (2018). Special Education. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.healthofchildren.com/S/Special-Education.html

Buck Institute for Education. (2019). Why PBL? Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.bie.org/about/why_pbl

Powell. W&K. June. 2011. Supporting Educators of Today and Tomorrow. How I Teach Now Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://www.ascd.org/publications/books/111011/chapters/Knowing-Our-Students-as-Learners.aspx

The Hundred Languages of Children. (2018). Children' with Special Needs. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://thehundredlanguagesofchildren.weebly.com/children-with-special-needs.html

A Blog by Concordia University-Portland. November 17, 2017. Six Strategies for Teaching in Special Education Classrooms. Retrieved October 23, 2018, from https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/6-strategies-for-teaching-special-education-classes/

California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging Making Access Possible. 2018. California's Vision for Supporting Early Childhood Social and Emotional Competence Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://cainclusion.org/camap/map-project-resources/california-collaborative-on-the-social-emotional-foundations-for-early-learning/

National Association of Special Education Teachers. 2007. TheImportance of Assessment. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://www.naset.org/index.php?id=2876

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